In the event that agreements with the federal government are not fulfilled, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, or ASUU, has threatened to go on strike within the next two weeks.
Comrade Happiness Uduk, the ASUU’s Calabar Zone Zonal Coordinator, made this statement at a news conference and demonstration that the ASUU Calabar Zone had planned at Abia State University’s Uturu Main Campus.
She claimed that the union and the federal government had not yet honoured a number of agreements, leaving the state of the academic workforce and the education system as a whole in appalling shape.
Among the problems she mentioned were the lack of pay raises, salary arrears, inadequate university funding, and the failure to pay Earned Academic Allowances.
The union denounced the victimisation of ASUU members at Ebonyi State University (EBSU) and rejected the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Integrated Personal and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) at Abia State University in Uturu.
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It expressed sadness that the high cost of living in the nation had rendered lecturers’ monthly salaries meaningless.
ASUU warned that the Federal Government’s loan programme for Nigerian students would turn them into slaves, so they rejected it as well.
“Within the next two weeks, universities will not be open for business. Uduk pleaded, “Please deliver the message to them.
In a separate speech, Dr. Chidi Mba, the chairman of ASUU at Abia State University, criticised the Treasury Single Account.
Mba also expressed dissatisfaction at the reduction in some employees’ salary, claiming that academics should be paid for between eleven and fourteen months.
The chairman of ASUU urged the Abia State government to provide the institution more funds.
The University of Calabar, University of Uyo, Alex Ekwueme University, Abia State University, Ebonyi State University, and Akwa Ibom State University are the seven universities that make up the Calabar Zone of ASUU.
